A High Step-Up Power Converter with Reduced Input Current Ripple for PV Applications

On this paper, a novel power electronics converter with reduced input current ripple capability is evaluated and employed in a photovoltaic (PV) energy harvesting application. The mentioned converter possesses the ability of increasing the input voltage which is highly desirable since PV panels are DC power sources with low voltage generation. Besides, the high quality of the input current brings the benefit of lower oscillation, compared to the conventional boost converter, when a Maximum Power Point Tracking (MPPT) algorithm is implemented. Thus, the proposed converter possesses both characteristics, such a converter is derived from the connection of a conventional boost converter plus an enhanced Single-Ended Primary-Inductor Converter (SEPIC). Along the paper, the theoretical analysis is carried out, and then the performance of the proposed converter is evaluated by means of the standard closed-loop Perturb & Observe (P&O) algorithm. Detail simulations proved the dynamics of the proposed converter.